Josh 8
1
And the Lord said to Josue: Fear not, nor be thou dismayed: take with thee all the
multitude of fighting men, arise and go up to the town of Hai. Behold I have delivered
into thy hand the king thereof, and the people, and the city, and the land.
2
And thou shalt do to the city of Hai, and to the king thereof, as thou hast done to
Jericho, and to the king thereof: but the spoils and all the cattle you shall take
for a prey to yourselves: lay an ambush for the city behind it.
3
And Josue arose, and all the army of the fighting men with him, to go up against Hai:
and he sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night,
4
And commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city: and go not very far from
it: and be ye all ready.
5
But I and the rest of the multitude which is with me; will approach on the contrary
side against the city. And when they shall come out against us, we will flee, and
turn our backs, as we did before:
6
Till they pursuing us be drawn farther from the city: for they will think that we
flee as before.
7
And whilst we are fleeing, and they pursuing, you shall arise out of the ambush, and
shall destroy the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into our hands.
8
And when you shall have taken it, set it on fire, and you shall do all things so as
I have commanded.
9
And he sent them away, and they went on to the place of the ambush, and abode between
Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the city of Hai. But Josue stayed that night in
the midst of the people,
10
And rising early in the morning, he mustered his soldiers, and went up with the ancients
in the front of the army environed with the aid of the fighting men.
11
And when they were come, and were gone up over against the city, they stood on the
north side of the city, between which and them there was a valley in the midst.
12
And he had chosen five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel
and Hai, on the west side of the same city:
13
But all the rest of the army went in battle array on the north side, so that the last
of that multitude reached to the west side of the city. So Josue went that night,
and stood in the midst of the valley.
14
And when the king of Hai saw this, he made haste in the morning, and went out with
all the army of the city, and set it in battle array toward the desert, not knowing
that there lay an ambush behind his back.
15
But Josue, and all Israel gave back, making as if they were afraid, and fleeing by
the way of the wilderness.
16
But they shouting together, and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they
were come from the city,
17
And not one remained in the city of Hai and of Bethel, that did not pursue after Israel,
leaving the towns open as they had rushed out,
18
The Lord said to Josue: Lift up the shield that is in thy hand, towards the city of
Hai, for I will deliver it to thee.
19
And when he had lifted up his shield towards the city, the ambush that lay hid, rose
up immediately: and going to the city, took it and set it on fire.
20
And the men of the city, that pursued after Josue, looking back and seeing the smoke
of the city rise up to heaven, had no more power to flee this way or that way: especially
as they that had counterfeited flight, end were going toward the wilderness, turned
back most valiantly against them that pursued.
21
So Josue and all Israel seeing that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the
city rose up, returned and slew the men of Hai.
22
And they also that had taken and set the city on fire, issuing out of the city to
meet their own men, began to cut off the enemies who were surrounded by them. So that
the enemies being cut off on both sides, not one of so great a multitude was saved.
23
And they took the king of the city of Hai alive, and brought him to Josue.
24
So all being slain that had pursued after Israel in his flight to the wilderness,
and tailing by the sword in the same place, the children of Israel returned and laid
waste the city.
25
And the number of them that fell that day, both of men and women, was twelve thousand
persons all of the city of Hai.
26
But Josue drew not back his hand, which he had stretched out on high, holding the
shield, till all the inhabitants of Hai were slain.
27
And the children of Israel divided among them the cattle and the prey of the city,
as the Lord had commanded Josue.
28
And he burned the city, and made it a heap for ever:
29
And he hung the king thereof on a gibbet until the evening and the going down of the
sun. Then Josue commanded, and they took down his carcass from the gibbet: and threw
it in the very entrance of the city, heaping upon it a great heap of stones, which
remaineth until this present day.
30
Then Josue built an altar to the Lord the God of Israel in mount Hebal,
31
As Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, and it is written
in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones which iron had not touched:
and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated victims of peace offerings.
32
And he wrote upon stones the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had ordered
before the children of Israel.
33
And all the people, and the ancients, and the princes and judges stood on both sides
of the ark, before the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, both
the stranger and he that was born among them, half of them by mount Garizim, and half
by mount Hebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. And first he blessed
the people of Israel.
34
After this he read all the words of the blessing and the cursing and all things that
were written in the hook of the law.
35
He left out nothing of those things which Moses had commanded, but he repeated all
before all the people of Israel, with the women and children and strangers that dwelt
among them.